FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

So this years wethepeople tour is taking shape and we'll be this year on monkey island as it's often referred to in friendly circles in Germany. Yep, the Uk. There is a plan, but with no plan. Thanks to Hotwheels in the UK, the immigration are letting us back in and are currently investigating our chances of benefits; hopefully one of those will be some decent bloody weather. Image three cars, each one ready for the scrap heap. Some classic Swedish metal and ready for the road. Then fill them with 12 of wethepeople's finest:

Give them a few more months but the team of Brad McDonald, Todd Toth, Steve Giberson and [url=//fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1193]Mark Losey[/url] are already working on putting [url=//fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1311]Vital Media Net[/url] online. It's a big posse of ex-Transworld employees together who are getting ready for the internet. No more printer deadline, no more photo scanning, no more waiting for three months before they see their best photos in a magazine. Find more info on [url=http://www.vitalmedianet.com] Vital Media[/url] and make sure to check out Guy-B's blog on the [url=http://www.vitalmx.com]motocross section[/url]. Here's a sample: 

Rampworx hosted the first Backyard Jam qualifying round for the expert riders. The riders who made it to the top 10 are allowed to enter the Backyard Jam. If you did not qualify in Liverpool, you have 3 more chances:  

Sunday 16th July - Y2sk8 -  Peterborough, England
Sunday 27th August -  Motion -  Bristol, England
Sunday 30th September - Unit23 -  Dumbarton, Scotland

This will be a new type of event for BMX … combining street riding with a massive social session at Epic and even some orienteering. This is how it will work:
- Teams of three - two riders and a driver/filmer.
- Teams win the event by scoring the most points.
- Win points by visiting each spot, with some spots worth more than others.
- Teams score the biggest points by doing the best tricks/riding at each spot and recording this on film. 

Sophisticated Rider recently began providing AOL’s new partnered Action Sports content portal, Lat34, with a series of Blogs. Weekly blogs from the crew can be found on the [url=http://www.lat34.com]lat34 site[/url]. As a result of all the links they’ve provided [url=//fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1552]us[/url] on their site, we’ll be a bit more on our toes with our site, posting some regular (Sophisticated) downloadable freebies. One of our first exclusive treats is a small video of [url=http://www.sophride.com/updates.html#]John Parker's Draino[/url], 13 years in the making. The photo sequence will be out soon through our friends at UK Ride. Thanks to John Saxton for the video clip, and for bringing back Vander Rolls.

In the very near future we’ll have some videocast clips for the iPod gurus, as well as some free cell phone wallpaper. We are a print mag, though, so for the real updates check out lat34 throughout the season, (now in its BETA version).

The fifth issue of Sophisticated Rider will be out next month (July).

Flybikes sent in the updates on the Pantera 2, Mosca 2 and Diablo 3 frames. They all have some of the new features of the 3amigos and some more. Here are the new details on them:
- Integrated gusset. We are using now the asimetric tube to have an integrated gusset. It has a 2mm. Thickness on the bottom and 1.2mm. on the top so you have a gusset without the weldings that can weak the tube.

Pro Park

1      David Dillewaard
2      Michael  Cleveland
3      Chase Hawk
4      Diogo Canina
5      Gary  Young
6      Brian Hunt
7      Brian Foster
8      Ryan Guettler
9      Morgan Wade
10    Colin  MacKay
11    Cameron Wood
12    Daniel Dhers
13    Garrett Reynolds
14    Mike  Shirley
15    A.J. Anaya

In the past we had 5 European BMX freestyle events going on in the summer and that was it. We traveled from event to event until the summer holiday was over. These days we've got 3 events going on each week!

On the weekend of 16-18 June the park and vert riders can check out the etnies Bielefeld City Jam in Germany.

Friday is open for practice with the contest being held on the 17th and the 18th. There's a Pro and Amateur class and the loaction is Busbahnhof Kesselbrink in Bielefeld-City (follow Innenstadt-Zentrum signs).

If you're a party animal you should be there on Saturday. At 23:00hr the official event party starts at the Ostbahnhof.

The 69th issue of FreedomBMX arrived and it's got a new format. The bigger pages and a stronger cover are a good change. Kay's ultra sharp pictures have a bigger canvas now. Gregor Podlesny went to Lisbon and scored the cover of issue 69. The issue isn't short of news (P.8 - P.12) and has got the summer dates on page 14 (FAT-JAM: 19 August!). The crew collected a whole bunch of DVD's and the reviews include Transcend, animal, SquareOne, Mutiny, Sentenced to Life, Props, Soul and ManMade. BoySetsFire were on the Deconstruction tour last year and the band gets some love in the Media section. The article about Contests is interesting. They ask riders why they compete and what it means to them. G&S traveled to Lisbon and Freedom was there. Mark Koenig had been around for ages and finally gets his interview in Freedom (page 30-35). Flatland is pretty strong in Germany and the Battle in da Club report shows that. Gallery 69 has cool pics from many photographers. 

Following the news about the demolition of the “Oeiras” pool, Paulo Martins decided to organize a Jam with the intention of showing to the “Camara Municipal” (City Hall) and the local people that the pool continues to be an attractive place for the practice of sport activities like the BMX, Skate and in-line. At the event we could find regulars since many years from this mythical place in the national history of BMX, friends from other cities and two reporters from the local newspaper. In what concerns to the riding we cannot say we saw something amazing, mainly because it was a (very!) hot afternoon, but also because the central goal of the Jam was to put together old friends.